Check out our official podcast, Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! A podcast all about the latest tabletop roleplaying game news! From D&D and Pathfinder to the latest indie games, it won't necessarily be accurate, or informative, or even competent, but we will try to have fun!

Monday, 31st March, 2014

Storminator gave a good description of the changes. I'd agree if you already have the 3e stuff, there's not any reason to bother with the 4e stuff for setting information.
I wanted to know if there is something like new regions, factions or anything usable in Pathfinder that is not covered in the 3rd ed book that I have (but I have have not time to look yet).I read the 4e stuff fairly recently and don't remember any new regions or factions.
Cheers!
Kinak

Wednesday, 5th March, 2014

Storminator
I just love this thread :) Had it say it. Ok, about your scenario...
It really depends on how you want to use the magically trapped vault. For example, in a heist scenario I heard about, someone began with the PCs already in the vault, having bypassed its initial security measures. In my Dragon Mountain 4e campaign I had a "Kobold Proving Grounds" toward the end of the mountain as a deadly elite obstacle that involved a gauntlet of five traps (4 had attack rolls, 1 was auto-damage)...except each trap had a trick to automatically overcome it if the players remembered encountering that trap earlier in the mountain.
The important thing with traps is that they have countermeasures the PCs can implement to disarm them, evade them, take control of them to reset them, use them against other traps/monsters, and so forth. If there are 3-5 traps happening at the same time, that can be tricky to cram all those countermeasures into one solo statblock. So if each trap has a unique countermea...

Thursday, 30th January, 2014

Better rules for gaining xp for exploration and role playing encounters would be niceBetter than . . . ? 4e has rules for both of these (quest XP for exploration, skill challenge and DMG 2 "free roleplaying" XP for non-combat encounters), but I'm not sure if you're saying you want better ones than 4e's.
I just feel that XP have to be tied to the character's actions somehow. Whether it's killing monsters and getting treasures (for sandboxy games) or achieving quest goals (for story-er games) - if the characters level just because they've been playing for three weeks, there's no longer a reward factor.
does the rise of "Level when the DM says" correspond to the prevalence of MMORPGs?
<snip>
in an adventure path/Story/DM-controlled campaign, XP are a marker for what kind of adventure the characters can handle?I personally think you got it right in your first post: the key to level when the GM (or players, as per Storminator) feel like it is not particularly connected to GM control: it's connected to levels and XP not being a reward in the classic D&D sense. This is personally how I view 4e: the XP system is set up so that, basically, every hour of genuine play yields a level-appropriate encounter's worth of XP.
This doesn't make the players' choices irrelevant (there's no levelling in Classic Traveller either, but that doesn't make the players' choices irrelevant). It does mean that the game progresses "automatically" through "the story of D&D" - ie from dealing with kobolds threatening a village to dealing with demon princes threatening the world.

Wednesday, 22nd January, 2014

We run a Golden Age superhero game that's monthly. It's remarkable; started by Storminator, it uses rotating GMs and single-session adventures. With no expectation of continuity, it's been nothing but a joy.
Time travel features quite often. In one amazing adventure, we were recruited to save the multiverse; our characters died in fights instead of getting knocked unconscious, at which point an alternate-universe her with the same powers (ie stats) but a different name and personality showed up. I think I played 4 versions of the same hero.
In GUMSHOE, I'd hack TimeWatch into Mutant City Blues. Man, that'd be a fun game.

Tuesday, 21st January, 2014

...using.
However, the bottom line is that damage reduction does not stop any form of ability damage, regardless of the source.
A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks.
...
The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities.
...
Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.This text is pretty clear on most cases. Only in very rare circumstances would the RAW be unclear (wherein nonmagical ability damage is dealt with a normal attack roll, as in crippling strike), however, even in this case, this is because of confusion between ability damage and damage. However, ability damage is a type of ability score loss and is not damage in the relevant sense. Thus, it is only prevented under the circumstance that Storminator describes; the DR does not block the ability damage in and of itself.

Thursday, 16th January, 2014

Storminator Yes, that's exactly my intention, to assemble a list of solo design precepts. I will volunteer to put it together in the first post of this thread and also as a PDF.
My secondary intention, if we get enough DMs contributing, is to create an index of homebrew solo monsters.
the Jester Great design on the bugbear solo! I'm curious in the narrative how you justify a bugbear as level 16 solo, which is the equivalent of some adult/elder dragons? Was the bugbear an ongoing villain who leveled up or was there some kind of magic power up involved?

Monday, 6th January, 2014

Mercurius I think there's another factor besides system mastery, and I would call it comfort with rules improvisation. For example, I have not mastered 4e's system (there are plenty of rules I am not on top of since errata or common situations that I forget the rules on); however, I am very comfortable making an improvised ruling that is in the right ballpark and feels right. I think this has to do with the transparency of 4e that Storminator describes; in a less transparent system I would not feel so comfortable making stuff up without system mastery.
As an aside, 4e made character creation far too narrow IMHO; something which started to be reversed in Essentials but should have expanded far beyond combat capability. If you strip out AEDU, it's actually a decent system for old school style play (though the DM does need to understand how to design encounters to run fast). Take away AEDU, design scenes/settings rather than set piece encounters, and incorporate old school flavor, and 4e feels like 1e (albeit with a little less dungeon survival horror ) ;)

Saturday, 19th October, 2013

Hey Storminator!
Just some ideas:
An item bonus to Intimidate - especially if he's not CHA-oriented by default, it might give him a boost there. If he's really not CHA/Intimidate-oriented, then in addition a power that adds to Intimidate (say a daily boost till end of encounter, or an encounter power that allows a reroll) could help too.
Then you could look at a daily power, a bit like Turn Undead, that lets him do a STR-based close blast push (as a minor) or psychic damage + push (as a standard) - I'm going blast rather than burst because it's his terrifying visage!
Something that lets him add psychic damage to his attack as a free action, plus immob as a [fear] effect, provided the target can see and hear him, could work too.
Are any of these along the right sorts of lines?

Thursday, 17th October, 2013

...nate" power to make the actual battle with her more dynamic. Rather than making it an on-turn attack, maybe let it be an immediate interrupt when she's attacked so either the attack is re-directed or if noone is within range of the attacker then it charges the nearest ally. You could also do both, with the limit of only one creature dominated at a time. She's revealed her true nature so I like the idea that dominates are momentary perception scrambles rather than the type of dominating she'd do in cognito.
I was thinking something similar, especially in Stage 3. Giving her a free action on 10+her initiative to make a... Close Burt 5 or 10 attack? Everyone she hits makes an at will atack against a nearby ally. Using Kinak's idea of having a whip and using it to snare people, she can then be able to redirect attack to that target. Ultimately, I find dominate to be more frustrating than fun for players, and would rather find ways to mess with them while letting them keep their actions.
Storminator - Lurkers have always given me the same trouble, both as a DM and a player. A few weeks ago my Gnome Illusionist and friends fought the solo dragon in Chris Perkin's rewrite of Hill Giants (who can turn invisible very frequently) and we did essentially that - prepared actions, then nova'd. However, making her a Lurker in Stage 2 might be useful, using the portals as a means to disappear and reappear. With all the other Cambions and Devils running around, I think it could be crazy enough to keep the heroes busy while she's popping in and out.
I'm not entirely clear on how to build a Boss encounter like this while using other monsters in different stages. Combined HP (so killing the Cambion is just as effective as hitting the Succubus)? Lower her HP (so it takes about the same amount of time to get her through this stage)? Play it by ear and hope my players are strong enough? Anyone have experience with something like this?
Trit

Thursday, 29th August, 2013

...designer to give me mechanical models of elves, dwarves, knights, etc? Or if I read a module - say, Bastion of Broken Souls for 3E - and see some interesting ideas in it - say, a Night Hag dream traveller oracle, or an angel who is a living gate for a pocket plane where a god has been exiled - am I forfeiting ownership by incorporating those ideas into my game? When I used those ideas I had to mechanically translate them from 3E to RM; and I also had to ignore some silly advice from the module writer around framing and NPC motivations and possible actions - but I don't generally buy modules for those sorts of details - I am looking for cool ideas, and for nice maps and locations.
Instead of giving examples of what you do in your own game, people seem to have moved towards discussing a "standard" game experience,
<snip>
Maybe it's a 4e thing or even a 3e thing or a WotC thing in general.I see plenty of 4e people talking about what they do in their own games - me, Manbearcat, Storminator, S'mon, Pour, Jester and others (though some have left the boards due to being fed up with edition-warrior dogpiling).
But different games foster different sorts of techniques, and so different sorts of discussions about them. In a system in which mechanics are conceived of as gameworld physics engines (RM, RQ, most of 3E, good chunks of AD&D's action resolution mechanics) then discussions of techniques naturally drift towards new physics models (falling damage used to be a popular one; hit points and wounding is another perennial; two weapon fighting seems to come up quite a bit too).
In a system in which mechanics are in the first instance conceived of as metagame - ie for resolving a scene or a conflict of narrational authority - then once someone has chosen a system (be it 4e, or HeroWars/Quest, or whatever) then there's probably going to be less discussin of varying the basic mechanic - you'd just change games for that - and more discussion of framing and resolution of conf...

Thursday, 20th June, 2013

Storminator
Gah! Why would you do that to the wonderfully easy 4e stat blocks??
I like mind-mapping for story plotting especially, and I've posted examples done with FreeMind in the past. The way you're using it...just...ugh.

Thursday, 28th March, 2013

In a campaign first started by Storminator, we've been doing this for years with a Golden Age MnM campaign. It's the only campaign I've ever seen that truly has rotating GMs and which works flawlessly. Here's how we handle it.
- Predictable planning. We play once a month, usually on a set Wednesday, at a set location. Game time is 3 hours, from 7-10pm. People show up at 6:30pm and order food.
- Strong Theme. This is a Golden Age game, and that comes with certain expectations -- no angst, bright costume, vaguely ludicrous villains, over-the-top plots, no death. With the game taking place more-or-less in 1939, we try to tie games into the brewing WWII. One episode where zoo animals were broken free by Nazi villains and equipped with super-science technology was entitled "President Roosevelt vs. The National Zoo."
- Every Game is An Issue. Each game is complete in and of itself, with no carry-overs into following games, no significant dangling plot lines and no expectation that particular heroes will be present for the next ga...

...ill of Bedrock Games - Sertorius - New Game (Network System, i.e. Servants of Gaius, Terror Network) - 6 to 8 players
Sertorius
Be a mighty sorcerer with a spark of divine power, a hulking ogre cursed by the gods, or even a lesser mortal.
Experience a swords and sorcery setting where magic is powerful, but very dangerous for the wielder.
Get an early look at a new rpg a year before it is published.
I would like to run a morning and an afternoon session, and 8 players is fine, with 6 being ideal.
1. FickleGM
2. WalkingCorpse
3. ericpat
4. Tharian's Friend
5.
6.
7.
8.
3. Seonaid - Mystery Scenario - Hollowpoint - 2 to 5 players
Hollowpoint: bad people killing bad people for bad reasons
I don't have a scenario yet (shhh, don't tell the players). No experience necessary, just bring a writing implement and the desire to mess things up.
1. MrsFickleGM
2. Mrwright
3. Storminator
4. Dantilla
5. CrazyCake
4. nasrat - A Winter's Tale - Dread - 5 players
A Winters Tale
An arctic expedition using Dread (Jenga mechanic). 5 player slots.
January 1937
[I]Members for expedition sought STOP
To collect weather data to make a magnetic survey; to photograph the aurora borealis and study its effects upon radio transmission; and to explore the area northwest of E...
Ideal for those without family constraints as the arctic freeze will mean the expedition is isolated for the winter months.
Contact P...
1. EatsLemons
2. Nerfwright
3. ShadowDenizen
4. MallofCthulhu
5. Mummy Baggers
6. A loveable scoundrel
5. Qualidar - The Raw Deal and the Iron Hand Gang - Deadlands Reloaded - 4 to 6 players
The Raw Deal and the Iron Hand Gang
The most brazen crime this side of the Mississippi has struck the city of Harrisburg. Can a secret posse of Agency conscripts hunt down those behi...

Wednesday, 6th March, 2013

I do love the idea of a 'mis-jump' for teleportation.
Storminator I think something like what you described could happen with delays in 'hyperspace' for jumping.
Verner Vinge invented the idea of a Bobble that created a sphere and anything inside was cut off from the universe, and didn't experience time. Eventually it would 'pop' and the folks inside would see the future as if they instantly time traveled to the future. In one sequence there was a spaceship combat using bobbles as shields around ships, and to the universes view it took decades, but only a few seconds to the combatants as they tried to time their Bobbles creation and popping times to get a tactical advantage.

Monday, 4th March, 2013

@Storminator I have never seen anyone use "Frex" but it works. I have kept that in mind and since the player's didn't do anything to defeat the Necromancer (he was steamrollered during the Giant War) the village thinks it shouldn't pay, unfortunately the party assumes this sometimes and misses a valuable reward but that is up to them
@nijineko I will look into that but then the emphasis falls on to me to keep track of the timeline stuff...
@koesherbacon What do the "constant" players think about travelling the mountains and then reverting to the village they were in several months ago (where the other group left off) and then next week they have no benefit...I must have misunderstood what you mean because that makes no sense...

Thursday, 21st February, 2013

I don't think linear/railroady play encourages pawn stance, so I think I disagree with pemerton there. Nor does it encourage turtling - it encourages min-maxing enough that you can beat the encounters, and a 'follow the dots' approach. A willingness to follow the dots is the opposite of turtling - you have to come out of your shell to follow the dots.I keep forgetting how extreme "turtling" is in your usage/experience - I've still got the Edwards "won't do anything beyond follow basic cues" picture in mind.
On pawn stance, I'm sure Storminator has identified one possible causal pathway. What I had in mind was something like this - a player in a game with strong GM force won't tend build a PC who is open to and engaged with the gameworld, because that space has been crowded out by, and is dictated by, the GM. So instead you get PCs whose character is all about colour - their style in boots, their quips, their obsession with haggling with shopkeepers, etc - rather than about situation and action; or you get PCs where that stuff is irrelevant because the player works on the mechanical stuff that the GM can't control.
When I write it down like that it's not quite pawn stance - at least the first of the two approaches I describe isn't pawn stance - but it's something short of full-blooded play, at least in my view. It's not a player using their PC to seize the ingame situation by the horns, which is what I tend to think of RPGs as being about.
I realise I'm generalising a lot here, and probably drawing too heavily on my own...

Monday, 18th February, 2013

Storminator: Think of it like an option-based choice. Present an offer? Someone may take it, they may add to it, they may deny it. What if there are two, three different options?
It's a good idea to be prepared for multiple possibilities at any time. A plot tree could be helpful, with a rough outline of what may work, then see where it takes you.
Slainte,
-Loonook.

Tuesday, 12th February, 2013

On the resource management point - I tend to exercise quite a bit of control over the timing of extended rests in my 4e game, so HS loss matters to the players, because it changes the way they engage in combat. (Eg at the moment the invoker has 3 of 7 surges left and so is being more cautious than he might otherwise be).
That said, the PCs can use a ritual to create a Hallowed Temple - thus setting their own extended rest timing - but this requires what is, for them, a significant number of ritual components that then won't be available for other purposes.
But as was mentioned upthread, I'm not sure that mere HS loss is visceral enough for consequences if the consequences are meant to be an important focus. That was why I suggested the "stakes" idea - locate the consequences in the fiction. I think Storminator and D'karr are on the same page in this respect.

Sunday, 10th February, 2013

At the request of @Storminator , I am starting this thread to post about the houserules I am experimenting with in my current games of 4th edition. Comments, constructive criticisms, and suggestions are welcome :)
This is something that arose out of the excellent thread on Pemertonian Scene Framing started by @S'mon .
Where to begin? Probably Healing Surges is a good place to start.
Healing Surges
I really loved the idea of surges, as it makes the idea of hit points easier than ever to swallow, and the surge mechanics allow them to become unobtrusive in between encounters (no more bundles of Wands of CLW!), makes having a healer around not strictly necessary, and makes gameplay feel more cinematic - all of those things I like.
However, I also saw them as something that could be leveraged to do a lot more in the game. Here you have a recharging player-controlled resource that somewhat represents their vitality (something D&D has long been missing in its core). How could I put them to work in other ways?
When ...

Wednesday, 26th April, 2017

Many sci-fi shows have a derelict space ship episode. That's basically a dungeon crawl. Aliens was a dungeon crawl. The scene in Han Solo's other ship in The Force Awakens is a dungeon crawl. The Reaver ship in Firefly was a dungeon crawl.
I beg to differ! Aliens had some significant elements that the typical dungeon-crawl does not: character development, dialogue, no treasure, intelligent opponents, and a [SPOILER ALERT!] boss fight that occurs outside the dungeon.
You get my vote for most typo-free post, though.
We can expect a rebound in medieval fantasy's popularity over sci-fi, by the way, thanks to the US's current War on Science.

Though did Traveller ever do as well as D&D? Even in the golden age of Traveller? And I don't mean just in sales, but also number of tables played in any given week? OK I know no one could possibly have good numbers on the later, except for maybe convention schedules.I don't believe it ever came anywhere near, no. Never made the news or anything, never impinged on mainstream consciousness. I picked it because it was 1) sci-fi and 2) a very close contemporary to 0D&D.
Many sci-fi shows have a derelict space ship episode. That's basically a dungeon crawl. Aliens was a dungeon crawl. The scene in Han Solo's other ship in The Force Awakens is a dungeon crawl. The Reaver ship in Firefly was a dungeon crawl. When I started trying to come up with my own dungeons as a kid, it was the shows I'd watched in the 70s (often re-runs from the 60s) that inspired me. James West would often sneak through corridors, dealing with bizarre mechanical traps, monsters haunted caves in the Outer Limits and Star Tre...

Friday, 23rd September, 2016

Literally every inch of the floor could be trapped, since beholders levitateYup. The 2e supplement I, Tyrant had some good info about beholder lairs. What I recall:
- lots of vertical tunnels / 3d obstacles, especially spy holes in ceilings etc.
- strategical placement of enchanted mirrors that can reflect eye ray powers
- controlled cave-ins triggered by disintegrating a key wall or ceiling; also used as an escape route.

My players are headed to the borders of droaam and the shadow marches. There is very little published about that area.Hmm, do you have access to the Dragon articles? I'm quite sure both regions were covered to some (small) degree.

Wednesday, 30th December, 2015

somewhere in the shopping cart I gave them new credit card information, which they accepted
Strange. I get as far as that stage, but it won't accept new card info for me. Rather frustrating! My account runs out in early February, and WotC only has outdated info for payment for cards I no longer have!

Wednesday, 2nd December, 2015

Hey, all. I'm the guy playing this 'frosty' character in ig's game. Just (got permission to) read this thread and to address some points:
As I understand it, divine ascension isn't really a thing in Eberron, meaning that what he's attempting to do isn't really possible. So he's probably mad.
See, frosty thinks he already is a god. The problem is too few beside him realize or acknowledge his deity, so he wants the lowdown on how to be a better god. The anger is more at the people not accepting the truth of his godhood than frustration at taking an impossible task.
I would think that, should the Efreet's intent be genuine, that the Efreet's ultimate reward would be to join with the Flame and become part of its host of Noble souls.
While there are some positives to starting out with the Silver Flame as the tradesman (the god being literally present, firebody kinship, a high priestess who readily takes frosty in and likes him), his 'devotion' is only by coincidence of a former party member hav...

Saturday, 24th October, 2015

One of my players wants his PC to transform between regular and demon forms. Is there a class or PP that supports this?
PS
The obvious classes to reflavour would be Druid and Barbarian. Maybe Warden depending on what role he's looking for.

One of my players wants his PC to transform between regular and demon forms. Is there a class or PP that supports this?
PS
Is this something that needs to have mechanical changes? If they don't need any mechanical change, then you don't need anything to support this other than you agreeing to let them. Assuming they want some sort of Demon power-stuff...
There are a multitude of ways to make your character look like a creature of the same size, though very few ways of becoming Large (nearly all are terrible and/or daily powers though). Mostly, this is going to be useful so they can look Human because there's also plenty of ways to permanently look demonic.
The easy answer is "Be a Tiefling"
After that is Demon Spawn Theme from HotEC - You look very demonic, your origin becomes elemental, you gain the demon keyword, you add Abyssal to your languages, you gain a resist when bloodied, lots of demonic related powers. Throw on a Hat of Disguise to look Human sometimes and you're good to go.
...

Saturday, 19th September, 2015

I use the adventure tools for my monster stats, and I've noticed that the newer monsters seem to do enough damage, and the older monsters get new monster damage if you level them up one then level them back down. If they didn't I would also boost monster damage. I haven't really noticed a need to reduce monster hp.
PS
Yes, after MM3 the stats got fixed in this direction already. But I nonetheless went with the 25% adjustment even post MM3 and Monster Vault in order to make combat a bit shorter and grittier. My problem was that combat could drag on a bit too much for me and my group.
It's only been a few weeks ago that I read some very good articles on how to make 4E combat smoother and the solution was (suprisingly for me) seldom on the mechanical side of things. The ideas were e.g. to take turns more quickly, shorten all too lenghty discussions about tactics, roll for hit and damage simultaneously, and (my favourite) not to grind combat on until every foe's HP were 0 but to end it through...

Thursday, 19th February, 2015

Thaco had the extra problem that it removed the repeat 20s at the top of the chart. Using tables allowed finer control of the probabilities than a formula.Remember, in AD&D 1st ed a natural 20 is not an auto-hit.
With that in mind, you can easily adapt the 1st ed charts to a THACO model: treat any natural 20 as a roll of 25.

Sunday, 23rd November, 2014

The first adventure in the Savage Tides path has Sasserine, which is a great city setting. I wish they had done a whole AP there.
PS
That's what I am doing right now for 5e. PCs just arrived last session, and are on first mission to recapture a ship in the harbor. I may have to do a mash-up with Gardmore Abbey.

Saturday, 15th November, 2014

I thought Sasserine was pretty awesome, and they really should have included ties back to it in the later adventures.
Hopefully 5e solves the horrific grapple problem, because were lots of monsters with +40 grapple checks and Improved Grab. I think every single melee character died, including all the animal companions and cohorts.
I think the Wizards designers learnt the lessons of 3E Grapple pretty well. Both 4E and 5E fix it by making the check just another ability (skill) check, rather than having size bonuses figure into it, and by having the scores of the monsters much lower. (Pathfinder halved the size bonuses, but it wasn't enough. Opposed skill checks have a completely different behaviour than normal checks when calculating success chances).
A giant crocodile (CR 3) grapples you - the escape DC is 16.
A tyrannosaurus (CR 8) grapples you - the escape DC is 17.
And you can escape by either a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
Cheers!

Thursday, 28th August, 2014

My copy also had some extra glue on the top of the back page. No harm done to the book in fixing it.
PS
The first two and last two pages on my PHB were stuck together for around the top third. They came apart very easily though without any damage.
Other than the bottom right hand corner of the book getting slightly bent due to poor padding from Amazon, my PHB seems to be in very good condition.

Friday, 22nd August, 2014

I'm not suggesting you run another set of scenarios, but fighting one powerful monster should be in the barbarian's wheelhouse. Taking half damage from large hits is going to help more against one big attack per round. If they fought 3 lower level monsters the fighter might look tougher, as he avoids more hits and the -2 per hit is closer to the half per hit of the barbarian if the attack is smaller.
The big damage of the barbarian is also more likely to generate more wasted damage against multiple targets.
Not sure what's going to help the monk tho. He seems pretty far behind.
PS
I would be interested in seeing a multiple weaker foe analysis also.
On the subject of the monk. There might be tactics the monk can use to mitigate damage from a single foe. For example against the fire giant. A monk could pull a bit of a hit and run against a fire giant by flurrying, using "open hand technique" to keep the fire giant from taking reactions until the end of the monks next turn, and then moving ou...

Sunday, 17th August, 2014

I'm going to do a terrible job of contributing to this thread . . .
One of the things I love about 4e is the way it's enforced balance means I don't have to analyze the party's capability to make a fun encounter of whatever difficulty I like. If the party is 12th level, that's all I need to know.
In 3e days (and it looks like in 5e), I had to scour every capability of every PC to figure out how well their abilities would interact with my encounter and guess how well things would go. Or I could ignore that and risk either the TPK or the trivial boss fight.
So for me, as a DM, balance and fun go hand in hand.
PS
Well yes, Fun for the PCs and Fun for the GM are, or can be very different things. As I said in another thread as D&D classes level up they go through transformative shift in ability and power. And which direction they transfom in and when is a bit unpredictable. I recall a 3e game where my large 7th level party ecountered a mooncalf. This critter had High Int, a fly speed a...

Also, I can't help but feel that it's worth reiterating because it's rather fallen by the wayside;[B] The Fighter has no access at all, ever, to utility effects like Knock, Fly, Disguise Self, Water Breathing, Detect Thoughts, Invisibility etc.
Nonsense. A Fighter, even the Champion you are fixated on, has access via a single feat to spells like Detect Magic and Water Breathing. While there are not quite as many ritual spells in 5e as I would like, the list does include some very good utility spells like Water Walking/Breathing, Detect Magic, Identify, Speak With Animals, or Leomunds Tiny Hut. If we are discussing out of combat utility the fact that they are rituals rather than instant cast spells is meaningless.
Look, to be clear, you are not wrong, and Sacrosancts position is absurd. (With apologies, but it is.) However there are other points which you yourself are steadfastly ignoring to the detriment of your credibility.
First, there are no non-caster classes in 5e. Not one. There ar...